Abstract
Readers will no doubt be attracted by the first word in this book’s title and also by the reputation of its editors and many of its contributors: Rod Ellis, Kathleen Graves, Kathleen Bailey and Anne Burns, to name just a few. Their attention caught, readers’ next interest could relate to definitions of the word ‘creativity’. Fortunately for the book’s variety, in response to contributors’ requests for a definition, the editors bounced back with the following questions. ‘What does creativity mean to you? How do you define it?’ (p. 4). The result is a readable and informative mixture of explanations and examples. Chik, for example, quotes the Oxford English Dictionary definition: ‘the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness’ (p. 185); while Bailey and Krishnan believe it ‘involves generating novel forms or combining existing forms in novel ways’ (p. 213). Novelty comes too in the range of contributors to the 16 chapters, the majority of the 20 being based in the USA, Australia and the United Kingdom, but many drawing on experiences from countries beyond their own.
There are four sections, the first with theoretical perspectives and then one section each on the classroom, the curriculum and teacher development. Plenty of practical examples will inspire teachers who like the concept of creativity but struggle to find ways of implementing it. For those using the book as a course text, each chapter ends with discussion questions and other activities, plus references. Surprisingly, there was not too much overlap in the titles referenced to from one chapter to another.
In Chapter 1, ‘Creativity and Language Teaching’, the editors spell out two of the most commonly perceived obstacles to creativity, namely standardized curricula and materials. They counter these with the insistence that ‘creativity is not an “optional” component’ (p. 5), a point that readers will be inclined to agree with by the end of the book. Next Jones writes about ‘Creativity and Language’, allowing himself to offer two definitions. Creativity can be both ‘an outcome of language use….[and] …. a quality of language users’ (p. 16). Ellis is the author of Chapter 3 on ‘Creativity and Language Learning’. Amongst other examples he compares the creativity in language use of two children, one learning her own first language and the other learning a second language in a classroom setting.
Section II considers ‘Creativity in the Classroom’, opening with a chapter by Richards and Cotterall. Both authors draw on wide international experience, in this case a journal kept by Cotterall while teaching in the United Arab Emirates. She makes an interesting distinction between ‘purposeful and purposeless creativity’ (p. 101). Her example of one student’s sad personal reason for wanting to investigate the rising road death toll in his country was just one illustration of how teachers can encourage students to build on their life experiences creatively in their writing. Coffey and Leung, of King’s College London, bring examples from both the public and the private sectors to redress what they see as a lack of research into creativity in language teacher education. From interviews with five language teachers from ‘diverse ethnic, cultural and language backgrounds’ (p. 117) they contrasted, for instance, the need to be dynamic in private language schools versus the social influences on a teacher of adolescents in a UK secondary school. In Chapter 9, ‘Creativity through Inquiry Dialogue’, Chappell from Macquarie University offers ten conditions for creativity (p. 134). These could be a helpful starting point for new teachers and any others who find themselves becoming stale. The second condition caught my attention because of its reminder about the need for authenticity in classroom language. ‘Each learner’s utterances are genuine responses to others’ utterances’ (p. 134). Excerpts from transcripts scattered through the chapter could be used for analysis by teachers on courses. In Chapter 10 Choi considers multilingual texts, illustrating her points with actual graphics from her students’ work such as a ‘Ferris wheel of culture’ (p. 149).
Section III, ‘Creativity in the Curriculum’, considers, as did Chapter 1, perceived obstacles to teaching in new ways. As defined by Graves in Chapter 11 ‘curriculum design addresses the question of what should be taught in a course… and how what is taught should be organised’ (p. 165). More explicitly she examines the design/enactment relationship. The theoretical first half of the chapter is then illustrated with examples from four classrooms which are different geographically (Hong Kong, Italy, Japan and the United States), in the learners’ ages (primary, secondary, university and adults) and in the lesson content (literature, content-based, oral English and project-based). In a word, there is something here for all curriculum designers. Chik’s interest in Chapter 12 is technology. An anecdote about a parent’s question at a primary school where she was a guest speaker sets the tone. When asked how to prevent gaming addictions, part of her response was to suggest ways in which technology might have a positive outcome, namely encouraging students’ creativity. Her example from students enrolled in a general education course in a Hong Kong University offers a lively and detailed example of an assignment that others could use or adapt. The third chapter in this section, by Hafner of the City University of Hong Kong, will be of particular interest to Language for Specific Purposes teachers. Having taught such a class recently I found myself absorbed in the sample class activities which are spelled out in detail, including a simulated writing task for science majors, the rewriting of a legislative text for lay readers and a discussion task involving choices.
Although Section IV is headed ‘Creativity in Teacher Development’, as we have seen, threads relating to this area are woven through many chapters of the book. The word ‘creative’ springs to mind for the format of these chapters. In Chapter 14 headed ‘A Conversation’ Bailey and Krishnan report verbatim their own discussion on this topic. Then Ollerhead and Burns ‘cultivate teachers’ understandings of creativity in language and the classroom’ (p. 243) by using narrative enquiry.
This review has not done justice to every chapter in the book, choosing instead to give the flavour of each section through highlighting just some of the contributions. Collectively, the authors bring creativity alive in both their content and their ways of writing about it. I can see the book being particularly useful in ongoing professional development courses for teachers who are looking for fresh ideas. It is a valuable addition to the Routledge ESL and Applied Linguistics Series.